IT-Hekuma & Mid-Pitching Event

On 16th of November, the much awaited IT-Hekuma took place at TUT. It was bustling with eager students and scores of IT companies looking for prospective candidates, at the same time promoting their brand and handing out free goodies. It was a good opportunity to walk around the fair to observe how different company stands actually operate and to monitor corresponding student reactions. The entire team got together and went from stand to stand to take note of minute details that make a company stand out in such events.

We got an opportunity to finally meet Eatech’s recruiting manager Sanna, who usually works remotely from Spain and was visiting Tampere for IT-Hekuma. Since it was a busy day for Eatech at the fair, we had a quick round of introductions and then a short chat discussing about areas of improvement and career fairs in general.

17th of November was a very exciting day for the smartcareerexpo team as it was the day of the first major pitching event conducted at New Factory. Burni proved to be a very confident and effective speaker and made a rather good 3 minute pitch. Some feedback was received from the audience which was in fact very helpful and will help us enhance our final pitch (to be held on 12.1.2017).

Burni during the mid pitch event

 

Presenting the first prototype

Last Friday we met at Eatech’s office to present our first “real” prototype. While Elli and Ira were super busy with their exams, Tamas had been working hard and crafted an amazing, nice-looking prototype with some basic functionality.

The prototype helped us discuss some essential features and choices in the UI. With this prototype, we can now also easily demonstrate our tool to its potential end users (i.e. our fellow students) and get feedback from them.

Some choices in the UI turned out to be controversial – we had quite a long discussion about primary and secondary buttons and some other UI and technical details. Once again, we’ll know a lot more after interviewing the end users for real time validation. There were some detailed discussions about branding and presentation of the interface and other specifics like the use of individual pictures for representation purposes during the actual events.

Our agenda for the upcoming week is to meet students from different universities and fields and test and validate the initial prototype with them in a real-time environment.

A visit to Eatech and the Playbook meeting

Early on Friday morning three of us visited Eatech’s office in Hervanta. We met the HR and Communications Manager, Hanna, to discuss about their recruiting process and career fairs in general. We were all feeling hopeful after the discussion – feels like we’re on the right track!

Elli also met her friend for a short interview about what it’s like to apply for a job at Eatech. The said friend, by chance, applied for her job by visiting Eatech at a career fair, so she has exactly the first-hand experience that we’re interested in.

Suvi from Eatech and Tamas listening attentively

On Friday afternoon we gathered at the new factory for our Playbook Meeting. We went through the Playbook with these question cards, which really sparked conversation and even led to some new ideas.

We were also proud to present a sort of a “shitty prototype”, i.e. the sketches we made last time. The sketches helped us to demonstrate the basic functionality of our tool (our initial idea), and we got some valuable feedback from the project partner and our facilitator Raúl.

Bernie presenting our sketches

For now, we are making good progress and hopefully we should have our first prototype ready soon.

Preparing for the Playbook Meeting

Yesterday we have been working on our Playbook for the meeting on Friday with our stakeholders. Also we overworked our recent blog entries and wrote a new one.

The guys working on the Playbook and Ira on the blog

The main focus though was on writing our ideas on paper, because we wanted to be able to present them on Fridays’ Playbook meeting to give our stakeholders an idea what we are up to the next months and to give them the chance to give their valuable feedback. On the other hand it ensures us that we are on the right path to develop a valuable application.

Sketching requires lots of coffee

 

Team Introduction

First things first! Here’s a short introduction to our talented, multicultural and interdisciplinary team. We are a bunch of hardworking and motivated students eager to explore new territories. We are problem solvers and our goal is to collectively find straight forward solutions to complex problems. Apart from our unique skill set, team work is our strength.

Raul Berlanga | Project Facilitator

+358 44 328 7726 | raul.berlanga@demola.net

My name is Raúl and I’m the Demola facilitator for this project. I’m originally from Mexico, but I’ve been living in Finland for the last 5 years. Back home I did my Bachelors in Industrial Engineering and I recently graduated as a MSc in Business & Technology from the TUT. In my free time I love playing football and basketball, not only are they my favorites sports, but they are very social activities as well, and recently I’ve gotten a bit into cycling as well. Unsurprisingly enough, I play some video games in my free time and I’m also known for binge-watching TV series now and then. I’m a first-time facilitator, but I have 3 Demola projects as a student under my belt, so I’m really looking forward to helping my teams succeed while also enjoying their time at Demola.

 

Elli Felin | Project Manager and Service Designer

050 377 3443 | elli(at)ellifel.in | LinkedIn

While still officially a computer science major, I’m nowadays focusing more on my minor studies in leadership and management. I’m passionate about creating amazing applicant experience, bringing girls and tech together and helping people recognise their strengths.

I hope to become a recruiting & HR professional, and that’s why this project grabbed my attention.

Books, cats, coffee and Pet Shop Boys are great.

Bernhard Bernecker | Main Programmer

bernhard.bernecker(at)outlook.com

Bernhard from Austria, but please call me Bernie; in Tampere for an exchange semester. My major is business informatics, I like to code, love getting in to new languages and improve old ones. Basically I am on the finish line of my Bachelor’s Degree and already started some Master’s Degree courses.

To relax I like to be outside, I do various outdoor sports from hiking to climbing, mountainbiking, skiing, and so on.

I applied for this project because I like the demola approach to work on things and I was very interested in this topic as it affects myself and I encountered some flaws of the application process as an applicant.

Ira Sood | Concept Designer

+358 41 751 5006 | ira.sood(at)student.tut.fi | LinkedIn

Originally from India, I am an international Master’s degree student studying Industrial Engineering and Management at TUT. I have an engineering background (E & C) and two years of work experience in project management working with French Telecom. So that is the area i am going to add value to with regard to this project as well.

Demola is a very fascinating concept and i am looking forward to my experience working here. This particular project has a very personal significance for me which makes me extra motivated to find a solution to our problem.

I am quite outgoing and i love to meet new people especially from different cultures than mine.Reading and writing  are the two things i usually spend my free time doing. I am also a meditation practitioner.

Tamás Kertész | UI/UX/Web Designer

I’m from Romania, I study Interactive Media at TAMK, I like playing music, web/graphics design, a good cup of coffee and romantic walks on the beach. I dislike long-winded introductions though.